Friday, November 12, 2010

List: '13 Tips for Dealing with a Really Lousy Day'

Today’s ‘List Friday’. I’m a grumpy old man [1]. Though I aspire to be grumpless, some things still irk me. Push my buttons. Yank my chain. A big one’s people wishing me: ‘Have a nice day’. As if that’ll make any difference to my day. As if some days I set out to have a not nice day. Fact is, despite what anyone tells me, and despite what I do and/or say, some days are horrid. Awful. Really lousy. (Though usually not literally infested with lice.) In other words, really lousy days happen despite intentions, wishes and efforts to the contrary. And if they happen, then what? Gretchen Rubin (pictured) [2], a best-selling writer whose new book, The Happiness Project, is an account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier [3], has a blog to help her readers create their own happiness projects. On her blog, also called The Happiness Project [4], each Wednesday is ‘Tip Day – or List Day, or Quiz day’. On Wednesday 3 November she posted ‘13 Tips for Dealing with a Really Lousy Day’ [5]. It’s actually 19 tips – because number 13 expands to seven others [6]. No-one’s life comes devoid of failures, disappointments, losses, and rejections. When they inevitably happen, today’s list gives us ways to deal with them. Doing so may not result in happiness. But it should reduce unhappiness.P.S. h/t [7] darling Emily for alerting me to Rubin’s blog and its Wednesday lists.

Thanks, I am having a totally grumpy day, for no really good reason.To cheer myself up I tried to join a scleroderms support group to be told repeatedly that I had used the wrong password, which I had not, so I am having myself a nasty,cold, grey grumpy day and glowering at one and all.I forgot to mention that when we went to visit Aunty in Forest Hills the very upscale area of Toronto, the building was being treated for Bedbugs, just too funny we louts from the Inner City and all bug free, finally met the little nasties, actually they were all gone but powder lined each edge of a room to dissuade their entry.HA well now I feel much more cheerful laughing about that!So my dear Farmdoc you have yourself any old kind of a day you feel like having!

I am 64 years old, a sheep and goat farmer, and a consultant physician. Farmdoc's Blog is a reflective narrative of my past life; my present life as a farmer, doctor, relative and friend; and my life as a citizen of Mole Creek, Tasmania, Australia and Planet Earth.